Thanksgiving and Intercession PDF Download

Author: Lisa Patterson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gratitude
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
The question guiding the research was as follows: What impact does a disciplined, thoughtful practice of thanksgiving and intercessory prayer, done over time, have on the group practicing the discipline, and how does it change the participants' view of life or view of the ones for whom they pray? What I attempted to measure in this project was the impact on the ones who were praying intentionally and systematically the liturgical prayer of thanksgiving and intercession. The project focused on observing and participating in the practice of shaping the believer through a consistent, structured, ritual practice of the prayers of the people that takes its shape from the ordo of the ancient church, which is still used today. My hope for the project was to discover that praying deeply and broadly might open a small group of participants to the possibilities of difference and the opportunities to bridge the deep chasms existing between so many groups in the world. The project was designed to employ the methodology Gordon Lathrop outlines in Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology: "discern the pattern, practice the pattern, and renew the pattern," which carries with it the hope for renewal of the ancient for a new day. Hoping that the project would move people beyond just talking about prayer, I designed it so that the group would participate in prayer, reflect on the prayers, and reflect on their experience of the juxtaposition of participating in the classic liturgical prayer in the assembly and its use in daily prayer, producing critique and new meaning out of the old. In this project, the participants had the opportunity to explore prayers of thanksgiving and lament, with Christ at the seam. The first ministry action taken was a six-week class offered during the season of Lent (March 6-April 24, 2019). This class was designed to provide instruction and practice for the participants on the classic liturgical prayer of thanksgiving and intercession used in the Christian tradition and grounded in the biblical text as witness to it. The second ministry action also took place during Lent. Participants were asked to pray daily intercessory prayers, using the classic liturgical prayer of thanksgiving and intercession from Sunday's assembly. The third ministry action was administering short questionnaires to gather the data needed to address research question fully. All group members were then invited to participate in a final interview with me following the six-week class. Finally, the recap meeting provided the opportunity to share with the co-researchers the tallied responses from each of the questionnaires and the interviews. The summary of the questionnaires, interviews, and final recap meeting pointed to the same result--an intentional practice of praying thanksgiving and intercessory prayer using the classic liturgical model changed the participants' view of life and their view of the ones for whom they prayed. -